About the episode
Putting back your own immune cells that have been processed outside the body to do their job even better against diseases such as cancer can be a very effective treatment. It could only work much better if these cells did not become exhausted.
Despite the fact that these cells are adapted to fight extra hard against diseases, that fighting spirit diminishes after a while. The same thing happens with immune cells in our body that have not been processed. If we could figure out how that exhaustion mechanism works, we might be able to help them fight longer.
That is what American researchers have now found out. They discovered that specific proteins control the mechanism that activates the genes that trigger exhaustion. After a lot of complex experiments, they managed to block that gene expression. The result: immune cells that didn’t get exhausted and that started to fight even harder than before.
They are not there yet and further research is needed, but this could well result in a significant improvement of immunotherapy.
Read more about the research here: Researchers identify key source of T cell “exhaustion”
